Archive for the Ammunition Category

A few weeks ago I bought a sweet No5 Mk1infantry rifle. When I buy these things I try to make sure I get a small amount of period ammunition with them, just in case the urge overtakes me. This ammunition inner is Ball Mark VIIz ammunition loaded with nitrocelluose propellant. Manufactured byDefence Industries, part of Canadian Industries Ltd. The I.G. Canada means Inspector General Canada.

Simple little item, a ten round package of .303 rifle ammunition, intended for the Enfield infantry rifle and similar vintage weapons. This pack of ten is dated 1941 and manufactured by CAC, the Colonial Ammunition Company of New Zealand. This was the first ammunition company established in Australasia.

Shrapnel and shell fragments accounted for a large proportion of those killed and wounded in WW1. Those blown into the ether by high explosive to one side, artillery accounted for around 70% of casualties. These six balls were recovered from the Thiepval Redoubt on the Somme and are German in origin. Thiepval was a slaughterhouse on the first day of the attack and, despite early success, took a savage pounding from German counter-fire.

The Battle of Thiepval. The view looking toward Thiepval on morning of attack and showing German barrage. (IWM)

These two cartons arrived in the mail today, all the way from the U.S. I expect you won’t be that excited by them but finding unopened cartons of wartime Japanese Nambu ammunition is almost unobtainium. Getting them into Canada from the States is a painful experience as any ammunition export from the US requires Department of the Interior approval. These two cartons are marked almost identically. The star marking is for the Tokyo First Arsenal. The first line of characters is “ju-yon-nen-shiki-ken-ju-jip-po” which translates to “Type 14 Handgun Ammunition”. The second row is “ju-go-hatsu” meaning “15 rounds”. On the underneath of the cartons are the stamps for “sho” meaning Showa Year and 19.11, which translates to November 1944. These are perfect for my 1944 Type 14 Pistol here and fit into the front pocket of the 1944 holster I have here.

The other day I bought a Carcano Model 38 Carbine in 7.35×51 calibre. When I get these rifles I try to get just a small quantity of representative ammunition for them. Here are two slightly different issues of the 18 round carton for this rifle. The first is manufactured by SMI, Società Metallurgica Italiana in 1939, the second by Sezione Pirotechnico R.E. in Bologna, also in 1939. This round was introduced because of feedback saying the 6.5 Carcano round performed poorly in Abyssinia in 1936. Typically the Italians screwed up and actually made this projectile lighter than the one it was to replace.

This round was used specially by the Hungarians in their Steyr M95 infantry carbines such as this one here. This cartridge has a much more prominent rim on it than the Austrian round so if you find that your ammo is dropping out of the clips check that you may have confused the two, I did!

Another bit of kit I’ll never get to use. The Italian M30 Breda Light Machinegun fired Carcano 6.5×52 rounds just like the standard Italian military rifles of the time. This is a stripper clip designed to refill the horizontally fed magazines for this gun.It holds 20 rounds.